


We Failed Home Economics, Tommy

by meetmeinneverland



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Cold, College Oliver and Tommy, College Oliver and Tommy have no life skills, Gen or Pre-Slash, I have a head cannon that Oliver and Tommy failed Home Ec, LITERALLY, Nap Time, Pre-island, Spooning, Toliver, Tommy and Oliver have matching pjs, Tommy and Oliver nap together, nap, raining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2016-05-01
Packaged: 2018-06-05 15:48:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6711376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meetmeinneverland/pseuds/meetmeinneverland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tommy’s body is warm and his heartbeat is slow. If Oliver closes his eyes and ignores the rain he can hear every slow thud as Tommy’s chest rises and falls. It’s selfish of him to be glad his family is away but he can’t imagine this moment happening with them here. He likes these moments. He likes them a lot.</p><p>OR: </p><p>The one where it's raining and Tommy shows up at Oliver's house in his pyjamas so they can nap together in the middle of the day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Failed Home Economics, Tommy

The thing about Starling City is that when it rains it pours. Oliver doesn’t mind he actually likes the rain. There’s something about the way it sounds when droplets of water collide with a hard surface, bursting to create their own little puddles. Rain can be soft and quiet or it can be loud and hard, the kind of fat water droplets that you really feel when they fall on you. It’s so natural, appealing in a way that it’s one of the few things his mother can’t control.  
  
His mother isn’t here; she’s across the country at some charity event. Thea’s away at summer camp and with his father all but living at work its just Oliver and Raisa in the house. It’s nice, she leaves him be and only knocks on his door to offer food every few hours. Raisa’s always been good to him, kind and affectionate in the way his mother hasn’t ever really been. Tommy’s mother, Rebecca, had been like Raisa, funny, beautiful and gentle in a way that few people genuinely are.

  
“Mr. Oliver,” Raisa calls, knocking on the door gently. “Mr. Thomas is here.”  
  
“Thanks, Raisa,” Oliver rolls off his bed and opens his bedroom door. Tommy is standing in the hallway, barefoot and messy haired. He’s wearing the blue pajamas Thea gifted him for Christmas the year before, the ones that match Oliver’s own pajamas. “Nice outfit, Tommy.”

  
Tommy drags Oliver by the hand over to the bed and Oliver allows his best friend to shove him down onto the mattress. The bed dips as Tommy’s weight is added and it takes them both a moment to settle into a position that they find comfortable. Tommy settles first, flat on his back. Oliver tucks in against Tommy’s side, resting his head on his best friend’s chest. His arm lazily flops across Tommy’s waist and he can feel Tommy’s own arm curl around his back. It should be weird, and from an outsider’s perspective it probably is, but it’s warm and the material stretched across Tommy’s chest is warm and soft.

  
“Just came over for a nap then did you?” Oliver asks.  
  
“You know me, I get sleepy when it rains.”

  
_You know me_ is such an understatement. Oliver’s dropped out of two universities but he has a degree in all things Tommy Merlyn. When he got up this morning and saw the rain forecast he showered and slipped into his matching pajamas purely because he knew the weather would bring Tommy to his bedroom door. It’s in the same way that he keeps Reese’s in his bedside table. He never actually mentions their presence but Tommy still digs them out whenever he’s feeling hungry. Oliver doesn’t really think about it much either, it’s so easy to co-exist with Tommy that it isn’t until he steps back and looks at the big picture that he notices all the different ways they accommodate each other without question.  
  
Rain continues to fall and time ticks on in relative silence. Tommy doesn’t ask about his break up with Laurel and Oliver doesn’t offer any information. They don’t talk the fact that Tommy’s dad is in town or that his bank account is beginning to come with ever-growing stipulations and expectations. It’s nice, peaceful even. Tommy’s body is warm and his heartbeat is slow. If Oliver closes his eyes and ignores the rain he can hear every slow thud as Tommy’s chest rises and falls. It’s selfish of him to be glad his family is away but he can’t imagine this moment happening with them here. He likes these moments. He likes them a lot.

  
“I want to do something different this summer,” says Tommy suddenly, breaking the silence.  
  
Oliver shifts for a moment so he can look at Tommy’s face. “Like what?”  
  
“Something that doesn’t involve sleeping with supermodels and having to explain to your parents why I let you pee on a cop.”  
  
“I’m never going to understand why they think _you’re_ the responsible one when it’s always your idea to go out in the first place,” Oliver shakes his head. “Besides that, sleeping with supermodels is a hobby that takes up ninety percent of our time, Tommy, what else would we do with all those hours?”  
  
“I was thinking we could go to Europe, rent an apartment and live like the locals do. All that crap.” Tommy tries to come off as nonchalant but his voice is shaky.  
  
It takes a moment for Oliver to realize why Tommy sounds so off. The whole proposition is something Rebecca used to tell them about when they were kids. She would tell them bedtime stories about all the places she visited before she married Malcolm. It’s a deceptively heavy topic attached to a seemingly random idea but if Tommy wants to go there Oliver’s more than willing to accommodate him. “We could do that. Go to all the tourist traps and take corny photos. It’d be nice to get out of the tabloids for a while.”  
  
Tommy snorts, fingers tracing random patterns across the small of Oliver’s back. “We’d still be in the tabloids, Ollie, that’s never going to change. You could buy McDonalds in Canada and still manage to find yourself on the front cover of some trashy magazine. I was kind of thinking though that we could go as just Ollie and Tommy.”  
  
“Do they even have McDonalds in Canada?”  
  
“Canada isn’t the moon, Ollie.”  
  
Oliver steers the conversation back on track. “You know we’d have to do our own laundry though, right? And cook. We’d have to know how to use cooking appliances. We failed Home Economics, Tommy, we don’t have practical life skills.”  
  
“It can’t be that hard if Raisa does it every day.”  
  
“The last time you said that you set the toaster on fire,” Oliver grins, remembering the utter chaos the whole event caused. They ended up grounded for a week, which wouldn’t have been too bad but they hadn’t been allowed to see each other. His mother had always been a fan of quick and effective punishments.  
  
Tommy pinches Oliver’s hip. “Like you can talk, you burnt the eggs into the frying pan so badly that Raisa had to throw it out. Your parents had to donate money to build a new library after you almost burnt down the Home Ec room.”  
  
“We might need some lessons before we go unless we want to starve,” Oliver admits.  
  
“I wouldn’t let you starve.”  
  
“I know you wouldn’t, Tommy.”  
  
Tommy pouts. “You didn’t say it back. You’re supposed to say it back.”  
  
“Tommy, you wouldn’t starve because I’d shove a piece of pizza in your mouth long before that to stop your whining.”

  
  
Tommy’s chest shakes as he laughs and Oliver can’t help but grin like a lunatic. It’s so easy being in this bubble where nothing exists past his bedroom walls. The idea that this could be their whole summer is more appealing than he will ever admit past Tommy’s ears. A whole summer where they can sleep in and not have to worry about their obligations to their mother’s charities (albeit Oliver knows he is more reluctant than Tommy is given how they feel about their mother’s charities) and other responsibilities getting in the way of each other’s sleep. A whole summer away from Malcolm and the toxic vitriol that always makes Tommy a little quieter and a lot harder to make smile. A whole summer without Laurel and the drama that seems to be permanently attached to their relationship, regardless of if they’re actually together or not.

  
It sounds perfect.  
  
It sounds exactly like what they both need.  
  
  
Oliver slaps Tommy’s stomach gently, looking at him with a grin. “If you book the tickets I’ll find us an apartment?”  
  
“Deal, but later? I need to pee.”

  
  
Oliver rolls his eyes and shifts off of Tommy, eyes tracking his best friend as he slips off the bed and moves towards Oliver’s en suit. Waiting for Tommy doesn’t take long and by the time Tommy comes back Oliver is under the covers and punching his pillow into a more comfortable shape. Tommy crawls under the covers and scoots back until his back is pressed to Oliver’s chest. Oliver throws his arm over Tommy’s body, resting his hand against his best friend’s chest. Tommy’s fingers slip between his own, entwining them in a loose tangle of fingers. It’s nice; a warm contrast to the gloomy weather outside and the Oliver can’t resist licking the back of Tommy’s neck, smirking as his best friend squirms.

  
“Ollie!”  
  
“You wanted to spoon, Tommy,” Oliver laughs.  
  
Tommy digs his nails into Oliver’s hand for a brief moment. “I’ll go off to Europe without you.”  
  
“No you won’t.”  
  
“I wont,” he grumbles in agreement. “But I’ll leave you on your own the next time Carter Bowen is invited to dinner if you don’t stay still and let me nap.”  
  
“Tommy?”  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“Shut up and go to sleep.”

 


End file.
